I went to school in the 90’s, a child of “generation X” and I can say that I believe I had a pretty well rounded education. If I had kids I would want them to have something similar, to be able to discover things that they are interested in and to be able to ask questions undeterred. But the more I talk to my friends who are teachers and even hear of recent experiences from my younger early 20ish friends, I realize that a lot has changed with the American education system.
I imagine that the education institution is like a meat factory raising cattle on a conveyor belt. It seems with this mass production of institutionalized students comes the necessary drugging. I am a very creative individual, and I remember teachers telling my mother that I had a lot energy, mostly because I was very smart and I would finish my worksheets before everybody else. What was the answer back 1990 for this hyper kid? Drugs? Nope… more work. They told my mom they were going to put me in “classes for the gifted” where the teacher there, Ms. Cox was her name, encouraged us to be “risk takers” and to “think outside the box.” We were assigned special projects and logic grids. We wrote journals and made books (which obviously influences me now) .
Alas, had I been born perhaps ten years later, I believe they would have drugged me. Now I’m not faulting any parent that may believe this is best option for their child. But what if there are alternatives? Are people given a choice? Why is America so quick to drug each and every child that’s in the system? Children in today’s world seem to have more medical issues compared to kids when I or my parents were in school (My mother is a baby boomer) . It discourages me to have children in this country… it’s almost like you have to follow their process of institutionalizing your children or the government will confiscate them and put them in a group home. We can’t continue to be blind that the drug industry is a money making business ( a billion dollar business) . Is financial profit the driving force of why so many kids are being diagnosed and drugged needlessly?
Check this video out. Its’ a long one (sorry) but it’s eye opening.